The title of Quiz Lady, the newest film from Jennifer Yu, refers to Annie (Awkwafina), a woman who spends her days toiling away at a meaningless accounting job where she is generally ignored and unappreciated before going home to the two things that give meaning to her life—her beloved and surprisingly long-running dog Linguine and her equally beloved and longer-running favorite TV quiz show, which she has not missed an episode of in more than 20 years. When her mother, an inveterate gambler, skips town owing thousands to a loan shark, Annie ends up on the hook for the debt with the gamblers snatching Linguine as collateral. Mom’s disappearance also inspires the arrival of Jenny (Sandra Oh), Annie’s aimlessly flighty older sister who, having not quite made it in any number of careers, is now determined to be a life coach and sees Annie as the perfect test subject. Her brilliant idea for paying back the debt, saving the dog and helping her sister break out of her self-imposed shell, whether she wants to or not, is to more or less kidnap her and try to get her on the game show so that she can beat the smug reigning champion (Jason Schwartzman).
In many respects, Quiz Lady is a bit of a mess. The screenplay by Jen D’Angelo attempts to cram as many of the tropes of both the road movie/opposites-forced together sub-genres as it can fit into 99 minutes, more out of an apparent sense of obligation to the format than anything else, and never really comes alive as a narrative that we care about at all. D’Angelo also leans a little too hard into aggressive quirkiness that tends to grow a bit grating after a while, such as when the sisters end up staying at a Ben Franklin-themed hotel in Philadelphia whose owner (Tony Hale) strives for authenticity while justifying necessities like phones and computers. (I did laugh during a bit at the breakfast buffet when he quietly seethes over the presence of eggs Benedict.) The one aspect of the film that helps to make it somewhat tolerable, at least to a point, is the interplay between the two leads that manages to survive the face that both have been cast way against type. Although they cannot quite sell either the sitcommy elements or the more overtly heartfelt moments, their byplay does manage to liven things up enough to the point where those looking for a safe, non-challenging film to watch might find themselves taking to it. That is all well and good, I guess, but considering the talents of Awkwafina, Oh and Yu (who directed the wonderful 2004 documentary In the Realm of the Unreal and who has mostly worked in television over the years), I was hoping for something worthy of their combined gifts and Quiz Lady, despite its minor charms, is not it.